2023 EditionThis book brings the Loch Ness Monster into the twenty-first century. However, this is not a pro or anti Nessie publication. It strips the eighty year old mystery down to its basic components and presents a wholly new slant on the world's most loved, and most enduring mystery.
Written with authority and a deep understanding of the mystery, the expeditions and the individual researchers, this is the first book to have been penned by a loch-side resident intimately involved in presenting the subject to the public for three decades. For anyone who wants to get to the truth about Loch Ness, this book is essential reading.
However, It has more to offer than just the monster. Within its pages we discover how the Loch Ness Centre was conceived and created, and how this changed the lives of the author and his wife.Success and failure are treated equally and the author's relationship with the researchers, the local businesses and even the black Benedictine monks is explained with great humour and pathos.
This is a GEOGRAPHY of the world's most famous body of freshwater, the BIOGRAPHY of the most endearing monster of our time and the AUTOBIOGRAPHY of the best known commentator. All of this makes the book a most delightful and exciting read whether or not there be a Nessie in the great depths of Loch Ness.
Review: "A fascinating book that caught my attention immediately. You can see that Tony has spent many years correlating the historical and geological information. Not only does this book approach the subject from a scientific stance, but also incorporates local mythology. The painstaking research Tony has provided in regards investigation and research into the mysteries of the Loch and its possible residents is also a delightful and informative read. One of the best books I have ever read on the subject of Loch Ness and of course... Nessie".WELL WORTH A READ!STEVE MERA - EDITOR PHENOMENA MAGAZINE
Tony (Anthony Geoffrey) Harmsworth was born in England. His mother was Scottish and his father's family had Scottish connections. He was educated in Welwyn Garden City and then Bude to A-level standard, but an allergy caused him to fail his university entrance and he entered industry. A manager by the age of twenty, he switched career tracks in 1971 to join Wella where he was instrumental in introducing a new computer stock control system. In 1976 he was head-hunted by British American Cosmetics and designed systems at their Camberley factory before deciding to leave the rat-race and move home to the Highlands of Scotland to pursue his interest in Loch Ness. The author's authority to write this comprehensive book about Loch Ness begins with his lifelong interest which resulted in him creating the first professional Loch Ness Exhibition in 1980. The Exhibition gave him access to all the future research groups and he went on to develop a special relationship with the Loch Ness and Morar Project who have been working at one loch or the other for more than thirty-five years. In addition to staging the Loch Ness Exhibition at Drumnadrochit, he also designed and toured Britain with a Loch Ness roadshow in the nineteen-eighties. Coining the name Operation Deepscan, for the largest ever expedition to take place at the loch, he went on to encourage support for the research groups and when leaving the Loch Ness Centre in 1990 he ensured that the Loch Ness Project would be financed by the Exhibition Centre. During the eighties he wrote the Loch Ness Story documentary which was distributed through Polygram and in 1998 he set up the Loch Ness Diorama exhibit at the Benedictine monastery in Fort Augustus at the southwest end of the loch. Wanting to bring his ideas and concepts about the history of Loch Ness to a larger audience, he developed a specialist Loch Ness bus tour which used on-board video to present parts of the story in a unique LIVE+AV presentation. He also developed the highly acclaimed and award-winning Loch Ness board game, Nessie Hunt, and during the nineteen-nineties created the comprehensive Loch Ness websites - Loch-Ness.org and Loch-Ness.com. Today he gives live presentations of the Loch Ness Story to small groups through InvernessTours.com and lectures on Loch Ness and Highland History to university and other specialist groups visiting the area.
